Hermana Stevens Takes Sacramento: July 2016

June 13 2016

"Wow This week..what to tell you about this week. It has actually been kind of difficult to be honest. I mean thats just how it is I guess. Hermana McCloud and I serve 6 sisters and 3 out of the 6 this week were super duper sick so a good part of our week consisted of team ups, exchanges and running quick errands. We hope the Lord has been working in our area because we havent... haha jokes but really, Hermana McCloud have only taught area for about 10 hours together the whole week.. We miss each other sometimes. I am, however so thankful to be serving while I am serving! I love the sisters that we serve and I have grown to love them even more as we have had more opportunities to serve them! It is definitely a blessing and even though we didn't get to teach a lot of lessons this week, the Lord has taught me a lot of lessons this week! Sorry if this one turns into a journal entry!

Patience and charity. Two very important (and VERY hard sometimes) attributes to develop to become more like our Savior. This week I have been given a lot of opportunities to develop a little more these two attributes. It wasnt because I couldnt stand being around these people or they were oh so hard to have charity towards or anything because that is not the case because I already loved them but it is from serving them that I was able to increase my charity. Okay I really dont know if that made any sense but I just have noticed that my charity has increased some hah thats what I am trying to say. Basically I prayed for Charity and the Lord helped me out.. sorry that was kind of painful to read.. I just know that through serving Gods children whether they be members, investigators, or even missionaries God blesses us :)

So this week I got some pretty hard news from home. I was really thankful for the timing though. When I got my moms email about Ali passing, I was in the chapel about to practice a song I was going to sing in sacrament meeting the next day. I read the email and I was really having a hard time with the news. I told my companion she could go a head and practice the piano part because I needed a minute. I sat down and listened to her play "Abide With Me". I was singing along in my head. "Abide with me" is my favorite Hymn in spanish and the words just helped me so much. In that moment I knew that the plan of salvation is true. Jesus died for us so that we can live with our loved ones again and i KNOW that is true. and the second thing, He is always with us. I felt it so strongly. I hope that her family feels that comfort and love too. I love Ali and I am thankful for the role she played in my life.

It is such a blessing to be a missionary. Everyday gets better and better. I just feel so full I cant even explain it. It is just so much! I truly love it and I know that this is where I am supposed to be right now. Hermana McCloud and I were asked to share some of our misison experiences in young womens yesterday. It was so fun to talk to them about it. They asked "what were you most afraid of and how did you overcome that?" "have you ever been afraid to talk to someone on the street?" and "have you had a turning point in your mission?" and "have you ever seen a group of people and known which one you needed to talk to?" It was really fun to think back on my mission thus far and think of the moments that answer these questions. Honestly I dont know if some of the things get easier though. It is still usually totally awkward to approach someone on the street and weave the conversation around to God. It still hurts when someone says something really rude or slams a door really hard in our faces. I still have personal struggles and it still is hard when goals are not met but I do it. Why? because I have seen it bless that stranger behind that door. I have seen it change the life of that person on the street and I have seen the possibility of shaping the lives of those kids who have it hard. I know that it is true. Every single hard, awkward, painfully uncomfortable moment is SO worth it. I LOVE DOING THIS! :)

Hermana Stevens"

June 21, 2016

"This week has been another great one. There are just a lot of things going on in the mission right now! Elder Larry R Lawerence of the seventy came and gave a mission leadership training as well as a zone conference. At the MLC, we talked about the weaknesses of the mission. He praised our mission so much because of our obedience. side note, I am soooo thankful that I am in a mission where we have a culture of obedience. There is nothing that brings blessings like obedience and the fact that most are obedient and have good attitudes about it makes for a happy successful mission. We talked about our mission goals and what we can do to overcome our mission weaknesses and achieve our goals. What we came up with was sacrifice. We talked about the eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ and what we are willing to do to achieve our goals. We were all asked to choose something to sacrifice. Elder Lawerence shared his experience with this from when he was a mission president and how sometimes we have to prove ourselves to God and sometimes, if our desire is righteous, we can negotiate. President asked us to choose Something that the Lord has asked and then to sacrifice it. President also asked that we strengthen our testimony of the atonement. I am going to start off with sharing my testimony of the atonement of Jesus Christ.

I know that Jesus Christ died for me. I have felt it. His whole purpose was to come and sacrifice himself so that we could all return to our father in heaven one day. One of my favorite scriptures is Alma 7:11-13. It explains why he came and why the atonement is important. He has felt every pain, sorrow and temptation that I have felt so that I wouldn't have to alone. He has also helped me overcome a lot of things. It amazes me to think about how much he suffered. When I think about all the pain that I have felt in my life and all of my temptations and imagine feeling all of those things at one time. Then to think that he did that to every person that has ever lived. Every single thing. I literally cannot comprehend it but I know that he did it. I know that every person, no matter what they're going through can be healed through the atonement because he has already felt it. It was the greatest act of love by a Father and a brother and I will eternally be thankful for it.

Along with that, I would like to tell you about my personal sacrifice. When we first talked about it with the MLC, I thought of our car. We live 10 miles out of our area so I thought that maybe we could sacrifice our car for a week. On Saturday, we biked the whole day and found that it was probably less effective because our area is very far and it took us two hours to get there and upon arriving we found that our appointment wasn't home. After that, we knew that our dinner appointment was another 10 miles away so we headed off on another 2 hour journey and again, upon arriving, found that she canceled without telling us as well... it was kind of a series of unfortunate events. we had a little bike chain incident and some really nice sunburns. It was a good experience but we decided that we are going to drive to our area and then bike for the day so that we can be more productive and talk with more people. I thought that this was going to be a pretty good sacrifice but then when I thought about it more, it didn't seem as lasting. Being without a car could only last as long as my companion was on board anyway. We had a meeting as zone leadership and we started talking about the sacrifice. One of the Elders said "this sacrifice should be something big and something that is going to be hard. We all have something that we hold on to even though we should let it go." I thought about the things that I might be holding on to and I thought "the only thing that I really have at home for me is my family and my friends." and then it struck me. I knew what I had to do; stop communicating casually with my friends. We started driving home and I was debating this sacrifice in my head. My friends are the thing most dear to me. I love them all sooo much and I am so proud of them and what they are accomplishing in life and in their missions. They are something that I treasure very most! so many thoughts went through my head like "you're not even distracted by them!" or "maybe you can just sacrifice it until the end of this transfer" my next thought was "I don't even know if that is what God actually wants me to sacrifice yet. I will wait and see what he really says." Without skipping a beat, my companion said "Just do what God wants you to do!" I was completely shocked because it was like she heard my thought. I hadn't told her a thing. "Huh?" I said. Then she said "everyone just needs to do what God asks. If God asked you to wear a green shirt everyday for the rest of your life to get into heaven you would do it so We just all need to choose something that God has asked." She thought that she was just speaking in general but it hit me very very strong. I knew what I had to do. so my sacrifice is I will not communicate with my friends from home except through my weekly email. It seems really silly and small but it was something that I loved. I usually have other threads or we write letters back and forth but I know what the Lord wants me to do. It doesn't matter if that is or isn't distracting me or not. I am going to do it because I love the Lord even more than I love my friends. It was a really cool experience and I cannot wait to see the blessings that it brings!

It is going to be a super crazy week. We have two exchanges this week and MLC which I cannot wait for! sorry this was super long but you dont really have to read it if you dont want to. Sister Lawerence gave us a really long talk about gathering Israel and the house of Israel and it was really cool and I would tell you more about it if I could but time does not permit and also I am still trying to wrap my head around everything she said haha. I will share later after I have prayed and studied and organized everything she taught us. I do feel a lot wiser though! :) Thanks for everything everyone! love you all a lot!!

Hermana Stevens"

June 27, 2016

"This week was crazy busy. We had a zone conference that I told

you about on Monday, pday on Tuesday, Wednesday we went on an
exchange, on Thursday, we ended that exchange and started another one
so I finally got back in my area on Friday evening. Saturday morning,
President and Sister Jardine had Mission Leadership Council at their
home and it was so great! Like I told you all last week, my mission is
focusing on sacrifice right now and it has been super cool. There is a
whole lot is excitement and fire in the mission. It is crazy because I
feel like we are really getting somewhere. President always says
"turning a mission around is like turning an aircraft around. It's
possible but it takes a lot of time." I don't think our mission has
ever been a bad mission or a disobedient mission but we started off
pretty good and we have improved so much! Our status of "people on
date" to "people baptized weekly" is one of the highest in the
country! I am so thankful to be a part of this mission! I just love
it! For those of you who knew me before, I don't cry a lot because I'm
heartless or something.. But I have cried 3 times in the past week
because I just love everything here so much! I'm not like having huge
breakdowns okay? I'm still sane.. I just sometimes cannot explain to
you how I feel. It's purely joy. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. I love
Sacramento, I love my mission friends, I love my branch. Wow. I just
can't tell you. But I guess that was me trying.

This week, we had two sisters who were planning on a young boy
getting baptized. The mission goal could not feasibly achieved if he
did not get baptized this month. Now we know, it's not about numbers.
But every number has a name and it is the Lords goal that he has for
us. The boy's mother told them a few day before the baptism that he
could not be baptized on that day because she had work and could not
attend. The sisters came to us with a role play that they were going
to use on the mother basically telling her that they knew that if
they all had enough faith, her boss would give her a time off for the
baptism that week. They talked to the mother on the phone and she said
they could come over that night at 9:00pm. The zone leaders had told
the sisters that it doesn't matter when the baptism is like time of
day or day. They told us their plan and I said "well if the mom is
going to be home today, why don't you just baptize him tonight at
9:00?" We talked and kind of joked about it for a second of how they
would fill the font before and then go talk to her and tell her that
if they wanted, the font was filled and they could go right then. I
left on exchanges but the sister I was on exchanges with also taught
the boy so we heard all about it. The sisters took off and set up a
baptism. They got permission from president Jardine and the branch
president. They got the ward mission leader and the missionaries all
on board. The only people left there was to talk to was the actual
baptismal candidate and his mother. We went over at 9:00 pm to wait
and see the out come. When we pulled up, there was the most glorious
sight of 20 missionaries from a couple zones and the assistants
supporting these sisters waiting to see if the boy would show. We all
went in and prayed. Now I would love to end this story by telling you
that the little boy got baptized that night but that's not the case.
His mom was too tired to bring him over and she promised that it would
happen in July. Honestly it felt like we lost a big game but we didn't
loose by that much. He is still going to get baptized. It was a huge
motivation for me. We had 3 zones praying for this boy by name
throughout the day and the faith of the area was increasing. The next
day, everyone had they same sense of "if they can, we can." Everyone
was so excited about the work.

Honestly this week, on paper seems like it has been one of the
most disappointing weeks of my mission but it has been one of the most
tiring, happiest, faith building, joy filled weeks of my mission.
Whenever Hermana McCloud and I leave our area to be out with our
sisters, we make a joke that "we hope God has been working in our area
because we haven't" but it is so true. When we are doing what God has
asked of us, he takes care of us. We were able to add a new small
family. We taught them the restoration and they just grasped
everything we taught. We are SO excited to work with them. We have
also received a bunch of Referrals. The Lord always provides a way to
do that which he has asked of us. Life is seriously so so good right
now. I wish you could all feel what I feel out here. Thanks for all
your constant love and support! :)
Hermana Stevens"

July 5, 2016

"Well transfers have come and I have been transferred! I have a lot of mixed feelings about it but the over-riding feeling is "I AM SO EXCITED". I absolutely love the Sacramento 7 branch and the missionaries there so I was sad to leave but I know that East Sacramento is where I need to be right now. The other exciting news is my companion is Hermana Vergaray! We are companions again!

This past week, we had zone training and it went really well. We talked about sacrifice, urgency and the importance of choosing our covenants over the sometimes more "convenient" option. The training went really well. It is really cool to be able to do these training because we set up the outline and discuss what needs to be taught but when the actual training comes, everything goes so much smoother than expected! One Elder gave us a breakdown of your average english Elder mission and after sleeping, preparing, studying, meetings, eating and p-days, a missionary has about 8 months to be out on the streets or in peoples homes. Of course everything we do as missionaries is necessary and when we are at dinner appointments it is also an finding opportunity but those 8 months of pure proselyting is so valuable and we should recognize that! It makes me want to work harder.

Also this past week, Hermana McCloud and I felt that we needed to release most of our investigators. They were not progressing how they should and we could only do so much. We released all but a small family and a man. I really hope that things start going well out there and that those people progress how they need. We were out on our bikes all week finding because we didn't have very many appointments to attend but that is all a part of the work!

So like I said before, now I am serving in the East Sacramento zone with Hermana Vergaray! We met with our new zone last night and every companionship in the zone except one has changed so it is a whole new zone and we have 3 new missionaries! We discussed what our zone vision should be and what we were expecting out of this transfer and I am really so excited to be here! There is so much good energy and excitement to do the work. It is going to be rough because even in the past two days, I have no idea where we are going or which way is up but We will figure it out. This whole day we have been cleaning out our new house (Yes we actually live in a cute little house. I will send pictures when it is all cleaned) because elders have been living in it for a year. I think that is my sub-calling; house cleaner. It's not as bad as others I have cleaned out it is just the details you know like the mold on the grout in the shower and the measurable layer of dust on the baseboards and fans. I will be nice soon though! :)

This morning we were able to go to the temple. I love the temple and I feel so blessed to have a temple in our mission! Just a short drive! It always amazes me the peace that is possible to feel in there. I know that this is where I need to be. I know that the Lord called me to serve here in the California Sacramento Mission and I will forever be grateful for it! We don't just call it the greatest mission on earth just because that sounds nice but because it really is! I love being a missionary!! so much! It is just like a feeling like something that doesn't quite fit. I feel so blessed for all of the people I have met and for the experiences I have had. Thanks for all you do! Wish us luck this week so we don't get too lost!